I'm interested in using an Analog Devices ADXL05 accelerometer
in a project with a PIC 16F84.  The accelerometer outputs a
voltage in the 0-5v range.  At its default and most sensitive
setting, the accelerometer outputs 200mV per g.  (It measures
-5 to 5 g's.)  Although I don't know for sure (yet), the A/D converter
may have to be able to detect voltage changes as small as 2-4mV.
(Is this a problem?  How sensitive are most A/D converters?)
 Of course, on top of all this, I'm also looking for something relatively
inexpensive.  :-)

   I'm very new to microcontrollers and electronics in general, so
I don't know much about A/D converters.  I know the theory behind
what they do and how they work, but that's it.  I am trying to find
an A/D converter to use for this project, with no success.  I was
hoping that someone here might have used the ADXL05 with an A/D
converter that they might recommend.

  Or maybe someone could tell me what to look for in an A/D converter?
I understand a couple of things regarding them; resolution in bits (I
assume 8 bits would give me 0-255 (or 1-256?) as an output, which would
work well with the F84) and to be sure they are microprocessor compatible,
but there are things like the following taken from page 784 of the Analog
Devices catalog which I have no idea what they mean:

  Throughput Rate kSPS Max
  Linearity Eror (LSB @ TA = +25 degrees C)
  SHA BW (kHZ Typ.)
  Reference Voltage Int/Ext

   I've looked through past archives of this list, done many WWW
searches, asked people more knowledgeable than I, but I haven't found
what I'm looking for yet.  If anyone could give me some help, or point
me to someplace where I could get this information, I would greatly
appreciate it.

  Thanks very much in advance!

                                              -Jon-

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